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Hi All, first post and looking for some advice, sorry in advance if it's a long one. Bit of background, when I met my ex, I had a house which I owned outright, no mortgage and in my sole name. About a year later we bought a house together and I remortgaged my house to free up cash for the deposit of a house we would buy together. Without me knowing it until the day we were signing the paperwork, my house was to be transferred to joint names , the same as the new purchase as the amount of mortgage was too high for me on my own. Stupidly I still signed up.The funds freed up with the remortgage was the total deposit, i.e. all came from my house. That house was rented out, with the rent only just covering the mortgage payments. .Mortgage was interest only over a fixed period to end in 2022.
Jump forward to 5 years ago, we split up and agreed how to split the money and house we lived in together, equally, and part of that agreement was to transfer the house back to my sole name. Well, at the time I couldn't get a big enough mortgage in my sole name so it was left as joint with an agreement to sign it over as soon as I could get one, with her receiving half the rent until that time. Rest of the split went ahead as we'd agreed. I managed to get a mortgage offer about 2 years ago and with her moving house twice, getting married and covid I couldn't get her to sign the paperwork before the mortgage offer expired. She then lost her job in lockdown.
eventually got her to meet up and go through what we were going to do in Oct last year telling her that the mortgage was running out and without sorting it the house will be repossesed. She agreed if I get another mortgage she would sign the paperwork. So sorted a mortgage and when the time came to sign she produced a document drafted by a solicitor friend for me to sign stating that she would get half the rent for a further 2 years after the transfer into my name or would take me to the small claims for the total of 2 years half rent payments. It was a matter of a couple of weeks until the mortgage expired so I signed it without getting anyone to look at it. House is now mine again though I am left with a large mortgage on it and she has so far had 3 monthly rental payments. My question is how can I get out of paying her any more rent as from my point of view, what has been done isn't fair and possibly not legally binding. How do I tell if this piece of paper I signed is a legally binding agreement and if she takes me to the small claims court what is the process?
Many thanks for any help you can give.
Jump forward to 5 years ago, we split up and agreed how to split the money and house we lived in together, equally, and part of that agreement was to transfer the house back to my sole name. Well, at the time I couldn't get a big enough mortgage in my sole name so it was left as joint with an agreement to sign it over as soon as I could get one, with her receiving half the rent until that time. Rest of the split went ahead as we'd agreed. I managed to get a mortgage offer about 2 years ago and with her moving house twice, getting married and covid I couldn't get her to sign the paperwork before the mortgage offer expired. She then lost her job in lockdown.
eventually got her to meet up and go through what we were going to do in Oct last year telling her that the mortgage was running out and without sorting it the house will be repossesed. She agreed if I get another mortgage she would sign the paperwork. So sorted a mortgage and when the time came to sign she produced a document drafted by a solicitor friend for me to sign stating that she would get half the rent for a further 2 years after the transfer into my name or would take me to the small claims for the total of 2 years half rent payments. It was a matter of a couple of weeks until the mortgage expired so I signed it without getting anyone to look at it. House is now mine again though I am left with a large mortgage on it and she has so far had 3 monthly rental payments. My question is how can I get out of paying her any more rent as from my point of view, what has been done isn't fair and possibly not legally binding. How do I tell if this piece of paper I signed is a legally binding agreement and if she takes me to the small claims court what is the process?
Many thanks for any help you can give.
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